Chapter Twenty “ Done With Hiding
Harry bolted upright, breathing heavily, his heart pounding. His temples were throbbing and he swallowed hard. He was becoming accustomed to these rude awakenings. Ron, per usual, was sleeping deeply.
Putting on his glasses, he climbed out of bed. He quietly opened the door of the room and tiptoed down the hall towards the bathroom. He yawned silently, rubbing his eyes as he walked along the corridor.
Unexpectedly, he became aware of soft voices. He slowed, following the sound, and stopped outside a door that was two down from his own “ Luci’s room!
“I don’t care where you think you come from,” he heard Narcissa say. “I don’t believe a word of it anyway. I’ve had no confirmation from my husband, and Dumbledore was a fool to his dying day!” Harry felt anger rising in his throat.
“Believe what you want! There’s no denying it,” Luci’s voice countered, barely recognizable to Harry. His chest tightened. Why was she arguing with Narcissa in the middle of the night?
“I’m starting to think that you are not loyal to the Dark Lord, after all,” snarled Narcissa.
After an unpleasant jolt of the heart, Harry gasped aloud.
“My loyalty to Voldemort is none of your business,” Luci retorted.
Narcissa hissed at the name, as if she’d been scratched.
“Oh, don’t be a coward!”
“It’s called respect, you silly girl,” Narcissa spat. She paused, but then continued, “You’ve spent far too much time with Draco and it ends right now. You will do your job and keep your distance. I don’t want my son associating with a Mudblood any longer.”
“Watch it,” Luci warned, coldly.
“I will say what I please,” Narcissa growled. “I have no obligation to speak kindly to you.”
“If you care at all about Draco, and I know you do, you’ll carry on as we planned,” Luci replied, sternly.
“What are you doing, Potter?”
Harry jumped, spinning around and coming face-to-face with Malfoy.
“What are you doing?” he stuttered, trying to compose himself, so as not to look guilty.
“I asked you first,” Malfoy spat. “Why are you sneaking around outside Luci’s room?”
“I’m on my way to the bathroom,” Harry answered, gesturing towards it. “I was just…”
Suddenly, the voices in the room elevated. Curious, both of the boys pressed their ears to the door.
“You will never have any relationship with Draco! He is my son and I will protect him!” Narcissa barked.
Luci then yelled back, “He’s my brother and I can protect him too!”
A stunned moment of silence. Then…
“Your what?!” Malfoy yelped, throwing open the door. It slammed against the inside wall of the room, the noise echoing through the large space. Harry was sure that the whole house had been awakened.
Narcissa and Luci froze, mouths agape, with their eyes on Harry and Malfoy, who both stood there, wide-eyed, in their pajamas.
“Mother, what in the bloody hell is going on?” Malfoy shrieked. His eyes were on Luci. Harry could see his fists shaking at his side. He looked down and realized that his own hands were shaking too. She’s Malfoy’s sister. His stomach turned at the thought.
“Draco…” Luci began.
“Is this some kind of joke?” Malfoy cut her off, turning his eyes to his mother’s face. Narcissa stood in baffled silence.
“It isn’t a joke.” Luci sounded as if she’d almost choked on the words.
Malfoy’s eyes were begging his mother for a rationalization.
“I can explain…” Luci said.
“You’ll do no such thing,” Narcissa snapped suddenly, glaring at her. “I will take care of this.”
She walked towards Malfoy, who didn’t make another sound, and put a long, scrawny arm around his shoulders. As she led him from the room, she glowered at Harry, who stood motionless in the doorway. Harry watched them walk to the adjoining door and enter the room in which Malfoy was staying.
He slowly turned to face Luci. Her skin was even paler than usual. Her eyes were bright and filled with tears. She looked stunned and helpless, her chest rising and falling rapidly.
She met his gaze. “Harry… I’m sorry. I… All this time, I wanted so badly to tell you…”
He took a step back. She took a step forward. “Harry, please…”
Everyone had been right about her. Did he even know her at all? If she shared that blood, he didn’t know if he wanted to know her. It was bad blood.
“So it’s true?” Harry managed, his voice barely escaping his throat.
She nodded. She was watching his face, cautiously, as if she were afraid to scare him away.
“But… how?” he pleaded.
She took a deep breath and then turned away from him, facing the window.
In the neighboring room, they could hear Malfoy yelling recklessly at his mother.
Harry’s legs felt rickety. He slowly walked into the room and collapsed onto the end of Luci’s bed. Expectantly, he watched her. He could see the moonlight playing upon the side of her face, and he thought that she was devastatingly beautiful. This only increased the ache that was quickly filling his entire body.
But his thirst for answers outweighed his anger. He swallowed. “So you’re a Death Eater?”
She whirled around to face him. The tears had made their way from her eyes to her cheeks, which were now flushed with emotion. Harry felt the overwhelming urge to take her into his arms and comfort her. Then he shook the thought, realizing that he still had no idea what was going on.
“Oh, god, Harry, no!” she exclaimed.
He must have looked like he didn’t believe her, because she marched over to him and raised her sleeve to show him her left forearm.
Harry studied the pale, ivory skin, absolutely flawless and unmarked, and then he looked up at her distrustfully.
She sighed, removed her small mahogany wand from her pocket, and handed it to him.
“Aparecium,” he murmured.
When nothing appeared, she gave him a look that clearly said, I told you so, and paced back towards the window.
“Then I… I don’t understand,” he stammered, as he watched her pocket her wand again.
Luci shook her head slowly and whimpered, “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
Words failed him, as his brain seemed to have jammed. He just looked at her.
“Before you left for the orphanage, you asked me why I was here…” Luci started.
Harry nodded.
“And I told you that it was to report back to the Ministry.”
He nodded again.
She looked defeated. “And that was partly the truth… but I’m here because Professor Dumbledore asked me to come.”
“Dumbledore?” Harry asked, in disbelief. “But Dumbledore’s dead!”
Luci smiled slightly. “Is he?” she asked.
Harry raised his eyebrows. He supposed that Dumbledore wasn’t entirely dead…
Without explanation, Luci continued, “But he contacted me before his death. He told me that my family needed me.”
“Your family?” Harry echoed, still shaken, but attempting to understand.
She began hesitantly. “When I started to show signs of magic, my mother was terrified. She hadn’t known that she’d been involved with a wizard all of those years ago. See… Lucius spent a few months in the states and took up with my mother. When he found out that she was pregnant, he ran off, and she never saw him again. I imagine it was pretty important to him that no one ever know that he’d had a relationship with a Muggle. He married Narcissa almost immediately when he got back here.”
The shock on Harry’s face must have prompted Luci to stop. She looked at him, studying his expression. “You can ask me anything you want, Harry,” she encouraged. “I’m obviously done with hiding.”
“It just explains… so many things…” Harry trailed off. He remembered Narcissa calling Luci a Mudblood, the whispered conversations he’d witnessed, and Luci’s reluctance, numerous times, to give him straight answers. He recalled all of the attention that Luci had paid to Malfoy, and almost laughed aloud at himself for ever being jealous.
“Malfoy’s father must have known that it would come back to haunt him eventually,” Harry pointed out.
Luci shook her head. “He was very young, and I don’t think that he was the same person then as he is now. I think he was just scared. His pure bloodline was always important to him, even then.” She paced in the path of moonlight that streamed through the window, her pale skin and hair aglow.
Harry was silent. He had so many questions, but he didn’t know where to start, and his mind was muddled.
Luci took another deep breath and continued, speaking slowly, as though weighing every word. “So my mother immediately took me to doctors and specialists, who knew nothing, of course. Finally, one day, one of them referred her to a school in Europe for children with similar ‘disorders,’ he called them. That’s when she got in touch with Professor Dumbledore. I assume he told her that Lucius had gotten married and had a son. I don’t really know the details at that point - I was young - but the two of them managed to put the pieces together. I went on with my life. I went to school and became an Auror. It was always in the back of my head that I had a brother and a father, but I… I never thought I’d meet either of them.” She was wringing her hands, anxiously.
She moved towards Harry and sat down on the bed beside him, squeezing herself between him and the footboard. Somehow, the moon dust still shone on her face, even though they were both now sitting in shadows.
“So why would Dumbledore ask you to come here after all of that time?” Harry asked.
“It was the best way to protect my brother from Voldemort, after all the trouble he’d gotten himself into.”
Harry was confused. “But how would Dumbledore know that Malfoy would need your protection? None of it had happened yet.”
Luci looked down at her lap and chewed on her thumbnail. She seemed to be trying to find the right words. She sighed and glanced sympathetically up into his eyes. “Dumbledore knew that he was going to die, Harry.”
Harry’s heart began to race so fast that it hurt. “What are you talking about?”
She placed her hand over his, running a finger over the engraved words: I must not tell lies. An oddly warm shiver crawled up his arm as their skin met.
“It had to happen,” she whispered.
He pulled away, standing up suddenly, the bed scooting noisily across the floor. “He… planned it?” Harry asked quietly, but he knew the anger was evident in his voice. He felt like he was suffocating, his insides writhing.
“Not exactly,” Luci said, standing and moving closer to him. “Dumbledore knew that Voldemort had sent my brother to kill him. He knew that Draco would try. And he had to protect him. He had to make sure that Draco didn’t have blood on his hands.”
“What about me?!” Harry cried. “What about protecting me?” He became aware of hot tears on his face and looked away in embarrassment, wiping madly at them.
He felt Luci’s hand on his arm, gently drawing him back to face her. He surrendered.
“He knew that you had a journey to travel on your own,” Luci spoke gently, tears sliding down her face, as well. “He couldn’t help you anymore. And he knew that you were ready.”
“But I’m not ready!” moaned Harry.
“Of course, you are! Look how far you’ve come, on your own,” Luci responded. He saw the faith in her eyes, and he almost believed her.
Looking away, Harry swallowed. Everything was coming together in his mind. It all made terrible sense. Malfoy was her brother. He felt the familiar contempt in his gut. Dumbledore had asked Snape to kill him, so that Malfoy wouldn’t have to do it. He remembered Hagrid telling him the previous year that Dumbledore had asked Snape to do something that he hadn’t wanted to do and they had argued. Anguish boiled inside of Harry.
“God, I…” Luci had begun, but Harry cut her off.
“Why didn’t anyone stop him?” he asked, hearing his voice become uncharacteristically shrill. “Why did he have to die?”
He replayed the fateful night in his head, for what had to be the millionth time. He thought he might be sick. He felt his legs buckle. Swiftly, Luci’s arms were around him, guiding him back a few feet onto the bed. She sat down beside him again and he saw the concern in her features.
“He had his reasons.” Her voice was tender. “I don’t know what they were.”
Harry was silent for a while.
Finally, he asked, trying to keep his voice even, “So that’s who you were talking to in your fireplace? Malfoy’s dad? I mean… your dad.” He’d almost choked on that last bit.
“No, that wasn’t who I was talking to.”
“It wasn’t?” asked Harry suspiciously.
Luci laughed bitterly. “Do you really think my father would have anything to do with me? I’m his greatest shame. He doesn’t even know I’m here.” She paused. “Well, he might know now that he’s out.”
Harry frowned. “Then, who?”
She hesitated.
“I thought you said you were done with hiding?”
She bit her lip.
“Dumbledore? Someone was in the fire in his office,” Harry prompted.
Luci nodded in defeat. “That was me, yes, but… most times… I was talking to Severus.”
“Snape?” Harry exclaimed.
She nodded again.
“The coward who killed Dumbledore?” he asked, his voice and temper rising in unison.
Luci looked nervously at him. “Severus didn’t want to do it, Harry. He did it for Draco and he did it because Dumbledore asked him to. I think it’s killing him.” She shook her head, as if out of pity.
Then she said softly, “And don’t call him a coward.”
“What?” shrieked Harry, which caused Luci to shoot away from him in surprise.
Harry glared at her. “I can’t believe you could defend Snape!”
“Look,” she started. “I know you and he don’t like each other, and I agree that he’s not a warm person, but he only did what was asked of him… and I have to be grateful that he saved my brother. And he’s been… since I’ve been here… I’ve been able to depend on him.”
“Snape has you all fooled,” hissed Harry. “He’s a murderer.”
“Murdering someone doesn’t make you a bad person,” said Luci.
“How can you say that?” he asked, his tone stifled by emotions. He was trying to refrain from shouting.
“You’re going to murder Voldemort, aren’t you?”
“That’s different! I’m not evil! Snape is evil!” he snarled.
“What is wrong with you, Harry?” Luci spat back. “Is it impossible for you to see anything from any other viewpoint than your own?”
Harry felt his mouth fall open in surprise. He was sure that the hurt was evident on his face.
Luci sighed. “There are just aspects of this that you don’t understand.”
“Oh, and you do?” Harry retorted, his rage becoming difficult to control.
Luci blinked, but her expression remained calm.
“Don’t you think you’ve lied to me enough?” he barked.
She looked as if he’d slapped her.
“I… I didn’t mean that… I just…”
Harry took a sharp breath. His skull was throbbing. He put a hand to his forehead. Loathing filled his chest as he tried to grasp all of the things that Luci was saying. Intuition told him not to trust Snape or Malfoy. Yet, Luci trusted them both. And he trusted her. Whose side was she on? The room was spinning.
“I need some time, Luci,” Harry murmured, rising slowly to his feet, gripping the back of the bed to steady himself. “You and Malfoy and Snape… it’s just… a lot.”
Luci nodded sympathetically, standing to face him, and when she spoke, there was a note of desperation in her voice. “Please don’t hate me.”
Stunned, Harry stammered, “I… I don’t… hate you…”
“I need you to know that I’m still the same person. The same girl from the drawing room. And I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you this in the beginning. My brother was my priority at that point and I didn’t know that I’d meet you and…”
She stopped and seemed to redirect herself. She sniffed. “Now that he knows, it could be a disaster.”
Harry looked at her, and he could see the lament in her face. Had her priorities changed?
“You’d better go talk to him,” he said then. “It’ll be better coming from you.”
Luci nodded, mopping the tears from her face with her sleeve. “I hope you’re right.”
She started towards the door, but then turned back. “Thank you for hearing me out.”
He nodded wearily.
She stood gazing at him for a few moments before saying, “Good night, Harry.”
“Good night, Luci.”
As he watched her leave, he realized, all of a sudden, that he was exhausted. Emotionally and physically drained, he meandered back to his room, forgetting entirely that he’d meant to stop by the bathroom.
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My beloved readers,
For the few of you who review, thank you! I love them! I only ask that you don’t spoil the “surprise” in the review, if you can help it. =)
Love, Sunny
The Progeny of the Pure-Blood by Sunny Christian
Chapter Notes: All of her secrets are revealed...